How to Curate Content without Regurgitation

As a webmaster, coming up with creative, interesting and original content on a daily basis is no easy task. Sometimes it feels like it doesn’t matter how hard you try to beat other bloggers or webmasters to post great content first, because you somehow always manage to fell behind in Google rankings or page views. This can be a huge frustration, especially when you are all reporting (or regurgitating) the same content, and only some sites can take it further than others. There are, however, several ways to re-think the way you curate content to come out with, not only better posts than the rest, higher web traffic in the long run. You simply have to focus on the best ways to source what’s available.

Search first.

The absolute first thing to do when you see a story that you would like to report on for your website is to search it in Google. Check out how other sites are reporting on the content. Look at their titles, tags, and images. The most important thing is to figure out what everyone else is doing before you craft your own content.

Take note of similar content.

When you are doing a quick search on your topic in Google, your main goal will be to take note of similar content. Look out for titles that seem redundant or articles that contain nothing more than a photo and a blurb. Figure out what line of thought the majority of other sites are using to report this piece of content.

Find an original angle.

Once you have a general idea about where other sites are taking the content, it’s time to differentiate yourself in an appealing way. You can take the same exact content that everyone else is using and give it a unique spin to capture people’s attention and garner more clicks.

There are tons of ways to spin re-used content to put your own original mark on it. For example, instead of taking a news story and simply rewriting it, try writing a quick blurb sourcing the  original publisher of the article and then spend the rest of the post writing about your opinion on the news. You can also use trending content to create controversy. Instead of regurgitating the same story about a politician’s sex scandal, try combining opposing sources to paint a new picture. For example, you could curate all the public statements given by his supporters and his opposition about the subject.

While curating content is nothing more than copying, re-writing, and posting for some websites, the truth is, without a creative spin on your content, that technique will not get you far. By using simple methods to re-structure your curated content, you can win more immediate clicks and have more interesting and evergreen content on your site for the long run.

Nadia Jones is a freelance higher education blogger who specializes in all topics relating to traditional and accredited online colleges. She welcomes your comments at [email protected].